Venice
Venice is the last city of our trip to Italy. We spent about 2 and 1/2 days there, which seems short, but was the perfect amount of time as there really aren't that many things to do in Venice. That doesn't mean, however, that we didn't like it. It was actually possibly our favorite city, although we loved each city we visited and each had its own charm. In fact, part of the reason we loved it so much was because there wasn't a lot to do and we were able to just walk around taking everything in and go shopping for beautiful Venetian glass and Carnival masks.
As we had between Rome and Florence, we took the train from Florence to Venice. We weren't sure exactly where the train station was since Venice is, as everyone probably knows, a city of small islands connected by bridges over the many canals, with one large canal snaking through the whole city, the Grand Canal. When we got off the train, we walked out of the station and boom! The Grand Canal was about 20 yards in front of us. Wow. We had no idea that when we got off the train that's where we would be. It was really cool to see, a bit shocking, but a good taste of Venice immediately upon arriving. The only problem was, we had no idea where our hotel was or how to get there, since they obviously don't have regular taxis (they do have water taxis and water buses though) since they have no real "streets." Since we didn't know where to go, we headed back inside the train station to the tourist information that we had seen on our way out. They told us where our hotel was, and apparantly it was really close to the train station, which is lucky for us because after we had walked around Venice over the next few days we realized we could have had a really bad time getting to our hotel. But we were lucky, and it was only a 5 minute walk from the station, so we headed in the direction they pointed us to seek it out. We ended up getting there and, for some reason, the hotel was closed. I mean, really closed, with the metal barred door thing that comes down in front of stores, not sure what it's called, so we knew it wasn't open. We started getting very worried about not having a place to stay, especially since we had already paid for the hotel, when we saw a sign on the door telling us to inquire at the Hotel Principe. I had seen HP on our way to this hotel, so I knew where it was. We got there and they had apparantly had some kind of emergency at the other hotel and needed to close it for a few weeks, so they were putting all their guests up at their other hotels. Apparantly our hotel was one of 3 in Venice with the same owner, so it worked out really nicely and we ended up with a good room, luckily.
We didn't really do much in Venice at all, like I said, but we did see St. Mark's and we did go on a gondola ride, as well as shopped and just enjoyed being in such a beautiful and remarkable city. The first full day we were there we took at water bus down the Grand Canal to St. Mark's, the major piazza/church in Venice. The water bus was pretty cool, it was a little chilly and rainy, but it was fun to ride down the Grand Canal and see Venice that way. We also saw something that I thought was really cool--a UPS delivery boat. No joke. At first I thought I imagined it, until the next day when we saw another one! I really wanted to get a picture but the first time I wasn't expecting it and the 2nd time we didn't have our camera out. I'm a little disappointed about that, but it was still really funny to see! I guess packages have to get delivered to Venetians somehow!
Once we got down to St. Mark's it was still cloudy and a little rainy (luckily we had our umbrellas!) but we tried to get some good pictures. They're not fantastic, but we do have some pictures which is good. We wanted to go up in the bell tower because we had read that we could, but it was either open or they no longer let people go up in it. That was a huge disappointment. We went into the church, of course, but they are super strict about pictures and they kept it so dark we could hardly even make anything out. It's supposed to be the church of gold, and we could sortof see all the gold (all the frescoes and everything are done in/with gold) but not very well because it really was dark. We got bored of it pretty quickly since we couldn't see or do anything and decided just to go. What we could see of it was really cool and pretty, but that wasn't very much so we were fairly disappointed with our whole St. Mark's experience, especially after all we had heard and read. Plus, the rain didn't really help because everything outside was fairly dark and depressing too. Since that was pretty much all we had planned for that day (we weren't going to take a gondola ride in the rain unless we had too, and we still had a full day and a half left) we weren't really sure what else to do, so we just started walking back in the direction of our hotel looking for this street that I had read had good shopping. We had some lunch and did some shopping for awhile, and it was really fun. That's actually what we did for the rest of the day--looked at beautiful glass and carnival masks, bought a few things but not too much since we wanted to make sure to have something to do the next day too! Some of the masks we saw were amazing! They were hugely decorated or very intricate and just amazing. The ones we took pictures of don't even do justice to some of the ones that we saw. I wish I had the money and an excuse to buy them, they were so amazing. The glass we saw was amazing too, but most times we went into a store I was so afraid of breaking something! Most places don't let you touch anything anyway, which is a good policy because it is so nice.
For dinner that night we found a little place where apparantly none of the waiters/waitresses spoke very good English. We didn't think it would be a problem, but we were a little surprised because every place we had gone to up to that point had someone who spoke fairly good English. It didn't bother us because before that we had been a little surprise that so many people spoke so much English! Plus like I said, we didn't think it would be a problem--the menu was in Italian and English, so we could read what we were ordering. Since Venice is known for seafood, Eric decided to try the lobster that was on the menu (Norway lobster or whatever). Now, we knew they did things a little differently, for example they use squid ink in pastas (we saw multiple people eating black pasta and it looked gross), but Eric thought that since we hadn't seen any place with Adriatic crab (which Venice is apparantly known for, but we didn't find any place with it on their menu anywhere, so maybe it's seasonal or something) he would try the lobster. What we were not expecting to get was 5 little lobsters sitting in a row on his plate, whole, with the eyes in their heads and their many little lobster legs when you flipped them over. We were so grossed out. Eric had, fortunately, ordered pasta and had already eaten it, so he wasn't going to go hungry, but we had no idea what to do. It was completely not what we had expected, and if we had known, Eric would not have ordered it. He had no idea how to eat it, and no appetite for it had he known since it was a little off-putting having 5 whole lobsters on a plate on the table. And, like I said, the waitpeople didn't speak that great of English, so when they came back and Eric hadn't eaten any of it, we had to try to explain to them somehow that we had no idea that's what we were going to get when we ordered, and that he didn't want it. Eventually I think they understood, but we felt so bad. They were super nice about the whole deal, but we felt terrible and really out of our element. That's probably the time where we felt the most awkward and stupid about being Americans in Italy. It worked out ok, but we avoided seafood like the plague after that for fear of getting a whole crab or a whole fish staring up at us.
The next day Eric and I knew we wanted to go on a gondola ride since it was our last day in not just in Venice but also in Italy and it was one of the few things we wanted to do in Venice. We knew it was expensive, and had found out just how expensive the day before when we asked a gondolier, so we were prepared to shell out a lot of money, and it was a lot, but how can you go to Venice, especially on your honeymoon, without going on a gondola ride? We just couldn't. We also wanted to walk to the Rialto, Venice's first bridge that was originally built out of wood but was rebuilt with stone 500 years ago, so we headed there first. We figured we didn't want to do our gondola ride at 10 in the morning so we walked around first, and it was actually a beautifully sunny day, unlike the previous day. It stayed sunny almost the whole day too, until later in the afternoon. We spent some time meandering towards the Rialto, and then taking some pictures on the Rialto, and saw some gondolas so decided to take our ride then since we were able to haggle the price down a little bit (they won't go past a certain amount though, we figured that out because we had already tried with a couple of people just to see what we could get the price down to before we actually took the ride). Plus, it was a gorgeous time of the day and the weather was wonderful and we didn't want to risk waiting and having the weather change on us. It was definitely worth spending the money on it. We had a great time. It wasn't super long, about 1/2 an hour, but it was romantic and gorgeous and we got to see both the Grand Canal around the Rialto and some of the lesser canals too. We took a lot of pictures on our gondola ride and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. It was perfect.
The rest of the day we just spent shopping and walking. We still had people to buy souvenirs for, not many but a few, so we finished all of our souvenir shopping and walked around some of the quieter parts of Venice away from the Grand Canal, and then back down the familiar shopping streets around our hotel to pick up one or two more things for ourselves! We had our last wonderful dinner in Italy and went all out--we both got pasta and a meat course, and we had wine, and just spent a long time enjoying our last Italian meal. It was a wonderful trip and our last night in Italy was wonderful, if a little sad that we were leaving.
The next day we came home, almost missing our flight in Amsterdam and running through the airport to make it on time. Unfortunately, our luggage didn't make it back with us but fortunately we got it the very next day, for which we are very grateful! Overall, it was the most amazing experience and one Eric and I will never forget. We have plenty of pictures and some wonderful souvenirs to help us remember. I am so happy that we went when we did, and very grateful that we were able to go at this point in our lives. Eric and I spent 10 fantastic days in a place we have wanted to visit for a very long time. Italy is an amazing country and I am incredibly happy that we took this trip!
As we had between Rome and Florence, we took the train from Florence to Venice. We weren't sure exactly where the train station was since Venice is, as everyone probably knows, a city of small islands connected by bridges over the many canals, with one large canal snaking through the whole city, the Grand Canal. When we got off the train, we walked out of the station and boom! The Grand Canal was about 20 yards in front of us. Wow. We had no idea that when we got off the train that's where we would be. It was really cool to see, a bit shocking, but a good taste of Venice immediately upon arriving. The only problem was, we had no idea where our hotel was or how to get there, since they obviously don't have regular taxis (they do have water taxis and water buses though) since they have no real "streets." Since we didn't know where to go, we headed back inside the train station to the tourist information that we had seen on our way out. They told us where our hotel was, and apparantly it was really close to the train station, which is lucky for us because after we had walked around Venice over the next few days we realized we could have had a really bad time getting to our hotel. But we were lucky, and it was only a 5 minute walk from the station, so we headed in the direction they pointed us to seek it out. We ended up getting there and, for some reason, the hotel was closed. I mean, really closed, with the metal barred door thing that comes down in front of stores, not sure what it's called, so we knew it wasn't open. We started getting very worried about not having a place to stay, especially since we had already paid for the hotel, when we saw a sign on the door telling us to inquire at the Hotel Principe. I had seen HP on our way to this hotel, so I knew where it was. We got there and they had apparantly had some kind of emergency at the other hotel and needed to close it for a few weeks, so they were putting all their guests up at their other hotels. Apparantly our hotel was one of 3 in Venice with the same owner, so it worked out really nicely and we ended up with a good room, luckily.
We didn't really do much in Venice at all, like I said, but we did see St. Mark's and we did go on a gondola ride, as well as shopped and just enjoyed being in such a beautiful and remarkable city. The first full day we were there we took at water bus down the Grand Canal to St. Mark's, the major piazza/church in Venice. The water bus was pretty cool, it was a little chilly and rainy, but it was fun to ride down the Grand Canal and see Venice that way. We also saw something that I thought was really cool--a UPS delivery boat. No joke. At first I thought I imagined it, until the next day when we saw another one! I really wanted to get a picture but the first time I wasn't expecting it and the 2nd time we didn't have our camera out. I'm a little disappointed about that, but it was still really funny to see! I guess packages have to get delivered to Venetians somehow!
Once we got down to St. Mark's it was still cloudy and a little rainy (luckily we had our umbrellas!) but we tried to get some good pictures. They're not fantastic, but we do have some pictures which is good. We wanted to go up in the bell tower because we had read that we could, but it was either open or they no longer let people go up in it. That was a huge disappointment. We went into the church, of course, but they are super strict about pictures and they kept it so dark we could hardly even make anything out. It's supposed to be the church of gold, and we could sortof see all the gold (all the frescoes and everything are done in/with gold) but not very well because it really was dark. We got bored of it pretty quickly since we couldn't see or do anything and decided just to go. What we could see of it was really cool and pretty, but that wasn't very much so we were fairly disappointed with our whole St. Mark's experience, especially after all we had heard and read. Plus, the rain didn't really help because everything outside was fairly dark and depressing too. Since that was pretty much all we had planned for that day (we weren't going to take a gondola ride in the rain unless we had too, and we still had a full day and a half left) we weren't really sure what else to do, so we just started walking back in the direction of our hotel looking for this street that I had read had good shopping. We had some lunch and did some shopping for awhile, and it was really fun. That's actually what we did for the rest of the day--looked at beautiful glass and carnival masks, bought a few things but not too much since we wanted to make sure to have something to do the next day too! Some of the masks we saw were amazing! They were hugely decorated or very intricate and just amazing. The ones we took pictures of don't even do justice to some of the ones that we saw. I wish I had the money and an excuse to buy them, they were so amazing. The glass we saw was amazing too, but most times we went into a store I was so afraid of breaking something! Most places don't let you touch anything anyway, which is a good policy because it is so nice.
For dinner that night we found a little place where apparantly none of the waiters/waitresses spoke very good English. We didn't think it would be a problem, but we were a little surprised because every place we had gone to up to that point had someone who spoke fairly good English. It didn't bother us because before that we had been a little surprise that so many people spoke so much English! Plus like I said, we didn't think it would be a problem--the menu was in Italian and English, so we could read what we were ordering. Since Venice is known for seafood, Eric decided to try the lobster that was on the menu (Norway lobster or whatever). Now, we knew they did things a little differently, for example they use squid ink in pastas (we saw multiple people eating black pasta and it looked gross), but Eric thought that since we hadn't seen any place with Adriatic crab (which Venice is apparantly known for, but we didn't find any place with it on their menu anywhere, so maybe it's seasonal or something) he would try the lobster. What we were not expecting to get was 5 little lobsters sitting in a row on his plate, whole, with the eyes in their heads and their many little lobster legs when you flipped them over. We were so grossed out. Eric had, fortunately, ordered pasta and had already eaten it, so he wasn't going to go hungry, but we had no idea what to do. It was completely not what we had expected, and if we had known, Eric would not have ordered it. He had no idea how to eat it, and no appetite for it had he known since it was a little off-putting having 5 whole lobsters on a plate on the table. And, like I said, the waitpeople didn't speak that great of English, so when they came back and Eric hadn't eaten any of it, we had to try to explain to them somehow that we had no idea that's what we were going to get when we ordered, and that he didn't want it. Eventually I think they understood, but we felt so bad. They were super nice about the whole deal, but we felt terrible and really out of our element. That's probably the time where we felt the most awkward and stupid about being Americans in Italy. It worked out ok, but we avoided seafood like the plague after that for fear of getting a whole crab or a whole fish staring up at us.
The next day Eric and I knew we wanted to go on a gondola ride since it was our last day in not just in Venice but also in Italy and it was one of the few things we wanted to do in Venice. We knew it was expensive, and had found out just how expensive the day before when we asked a gondolier, so we were prepared to shell out a lot of money, and it was a lot, but how can you go to Venice, especially on your honeymoon, without going on a gondola ride? We just couldn't. We also wanted to walk to the Rialto, Venice's first bridge that was originally built out of wood but was rebuilt with stone 500 years ago, so we headed there first. We figured we didn't want to do our gondola ride at 10 in the morning so we walked around first, and it was actually a beautifully sunny day, unlike the previous day. It stayed sunny almost the whole day too, until later in the afternoon. We spent some time meandering towards the Rialto, and then taking some pictures on the Rialto, and saw some gondolas so decided to take our ride then since we were able to haggle the price down a little bit (they won't go past a certain amount though, we figured that out because we had already tried with a couple of people just to see what we could get the price down to before we actually took the ride). Plus, it was a gorgeous time of the day and the weather was wonderful and we didn't want to risk waiting and having the weather change on us. It was definitely worth spending the money on it. We had a great time. It wasn't super long, about 1/2 an hour, but it was romantic and gorgeous and we got to see both the Grand Canal around the Rialto and some of the lesser canals too. We took a lot of pictures on our gondola ride and thoroughly enjoyed doing it. It was perfect.
The rest of the day we just spent shopping and walking. We still had people to buy souvenirs for, not many but a few, so we finished all of our souvenir shopping and walked around some of the quieter parts of Venice away from the Grand Canal, and then back down the familiar shopping streets around our hotel to pick up one or two more things for ourselves! We had our last wonderful dinner in Italy and went all out--we both got pasta and a meat course, and we had wine, and just spent a long time enjoying our last Italian meal. It was a wonderful trip and our last night in Italy was wonderful, if a little sad that we were leaving.
The next day we came home, almost missing our flight in Amsterdam and running through the airport to make it on time. Unfortunately, our luggage didn't make it back with us but fortunately we got it the very next day, for which we are very grateful! Overall, it was the most amazing experience and one Eric and I will never forget. We have plenty of pictures and some wonderful souvenirs to help us remember. I am so happy that we went when we did, and very grateful that we were able to go at this point in our lives. Eric and I spent 10 fantastic days in a place we have wanted to visit for a very long time. Italy is an amazing country and I am incredibly happy that we took this trip!
posted by empeterson @ 8:15 AM
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